Supreme Court Holds Iraq Is Immune from Terrorism Suits

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that Iraq has immunity from lawsuits brought by Americans abused by the regime of Saddam Hussein.

The court in a unanimous opinion by Justice Antonin Scalia ruled that Iraq’s immunity was restored by an order of President George W. Bush issued under a law giving him that authority, the Associated Press reports.

The plaintiffs included CBS News correspondent Bob Simon, who was held for more than a month during the Gulf War in 1991, AP Says.Others who sued were the children of an oil rig supervisor and an aircraft maintenance supervisor.

Such suits could have resulted in $1 billion or more in liability for the country’s new government, according to earlier reports.

“To a layperson, the notion of the president’s suspending the operation of a valid law might seem strange,” Scalia wrote in the opinion (PDF). “But the practice is well established, at least in the sphere of foreign affairs. … The granting of presidential waiver authority is particularly apt with respect to congressional elimination of foreign sovereign immunity, since the granting or denial of that immunity was historically the case-by-case prerogative of the executive branch.”

The consolidated cases are Iraq v. Beaty and Iraq v. Simon.